Yesterday marked the one-year anniversary of Saddam's capture by US troops. Let us pause to reflect on the occasion. Since last December, when the feared Butcher of Baghdad was dragged from his tiny spider hole, developments in the region have been nothing short of . . . encouraging. For Democracy proponents, at least, it's been an encouraging year, and the removal Saddam had much to do with it.
First, Afghanistan's recent success with electing a leader would have been impossible--or at least much more difficult. Had we not taken out Saddam and his sons, every "foreign jihadist" now setting off car bombs in Iraq would have been setting off car bombs in Afghanistan. An important point to remember.
It is also unlikely that the Palestinians would be preparing to elect a leader who just pledged to drop the armed struggle against Israel. This is simply amazing. Before his capture, Saddam had been wiring big, fat checks to the families Palestinian suicide bombers (with much of the money apparently originating from the UN's horribly corrupt "oil for food" program). A handful of recent events notwithstanding, those bombings dried up quick the minute Saddam was captured. Coincidence? I doubt it. With the wind out of the martyrdom sails--and now with Arafat gone--the Palestinians have suddenly been presented with their best opportunity in years to embrace the wincingly obvious solution to their problem: renouncing terror against the state of Israel and living in peace as the neighboring state of Palestine.
On the anniversary of Saddam's capture, it's good to remember that things would not be as hopeful as they are today had the UN Security Council gotten its way back in early 2003.
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